Oakville’s Mark Penney and his co-writer Vincent Grashaw penned the script to their drama-thriller nearly a decade ago, but could not film the feature until now.

The script has been revised, re-written and improved many times since the first draft was completed in 2003. In its early years, the ambitious script was nearly turned into a movie but the attempts fell through.

Penney, who lived in Los Angeles when the script had been written, moved to Oakville and the likelihood of the script being turned into a film was slim.

However, neither he, nor Grashaw, gave up on the project and in 2012 they turned the script into a feature-length film, titled Coldwater, thanks to backing from a private investor.

“I feel great. This is like a dream come true, seeing something you put so much emotional work into over the years and didn’t give up on, seeing it be turned into reality and having other talented people come on board and making your movie,” the 36-year-old said.

The two-hour film needed a relatively large budget and there were few bites from investors. Grashaw and Penney kept polishing it over the years and kept pushing to make it. Penney admits he began to believe it wouldn’t get done, though he never gave up.

“We both loved the script. I put a lot of personal work into it. I was writing scripts. Vince wanted to be more of a director. It was just one of those things where it was a pretty good idea and we thought we did a pretty good job,” he said.

In the meantime, Grashaw worked on other projects, including producing the action film Bellflower, which was recently released on DVD.

It was Grashaw who secured the $500,000 in funding for Coldwater from a private investor, with whom he had worked with before.

“We wrote an ambitious script and we milked every dollar out of that budget,” Penney said.

Looking back on it, Penney said he’s glad the film didn’t get produced in its early stages because the script had been improved so many times over the years they were able to produce a much better product.

The film is about a self-destructive young man who comes from a broken home and has turned to a life of petty crime. He’s signed over to a juvenile reform facility in the wilderness. The facility operates under the radar, using boot camp-style programs and abuses are common.

“He’s not some bad guy but he’s a kid you would see in life who’s making some wrong choices and going down the wrong road,” Penney explained.

The drama in the camp builds up when the main character’s younger childhood friend who had looked up to him shows up at the reform facility.

“The drama is about the main character trying to turn his younger friend from the wrong path but it’s kind of too late,” Penney said.

Penney is co-writer on the film, while Grashaw directed it. The filming took place from late August to October in California. Parts were shot in town in the L.A. area while the majority of the film was shot at a valley camp in Malibu where the cast and crew lived for three weeks.

“We were all in dormitories. I got to really know the cast and crew and to really finish my film education and get to learn what every department did,” Penney said.

“There was no cell phone service either so in a way we were thrown into a mix together. We all became friends and we were a close-knit group while we were there.”

Penney grew up in Brampton and moved to live with his father in San Francisco, California in his teen years. He went to film school at San Francisco State University, though he never completed the program.

He then moved to L.A. in pursuit of a film career. He said he really got a good film education while working Coldwater, being able to help oversee the entire project from beginning to end.